English
vicious
Vicious comes from Latin vitiōsus ‘full of faults or defects’, and goes back to vitium.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvitium‘fault, vice’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEvitiōsus‘full of faults or defects’
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400vicious
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘Iniquitous, sinful, wicked’
- Englishearliest quotation 1814same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvitium‘fault, vice’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEvitiōsus‘full of faults or defects’
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400vicious
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘Iniquitous, sinful, wicked’
- Englishearliest quotation 1814same form
Earliest quotation: 1814, Jane Austen: “Admiral Crawford was a man of vicious conduct, who…”
Formed from vice + -ous
Latin vitium ‘fault or blemish’
Old French vice
Middle English vice ‘a bad habit or tendency that one has’
English vice
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ‘two’
two, doubt, defeat, twin, dual, duo, binary, diplomacy, duet, twain, bis, disparate, twig, deuce, bes, dubious, biceps, binocular, betwixt, 21 more
through Latin vitium ‘fault, vice’
Today it means
adj Violent, destructive and cruel.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin vitium / vicious